Tell Your Life Story
Creating dialogue among Jews and Germans, Israelis and Palestinians
Dan Bar-On is Professor at the Department of
Behavioral Sciences at Ben Gurion University of the
Negev and Co-Director of PRIME (Peace Research Institute
in the Middle East).
Describes Dan Bar-On's method of using storytelling
as both a qualitative biographical research method and
as an intervention, to bring people from opposite sides
of an abyss to a dialogue. Such work needs slow pace
and long-term commitment, with a special combination
of a scientific rigorous analysis with a sensitive approach
toward the people one approaches.
The book first surveys the author's earlier work in
this field, in the Kibbutz, with families of Holocaust
survivors and descendants of Nazi perpetrators, bringing
the two groups together (the TRT group). However, most
of the book is devoted to Bar-On's work with Palestinians,
both Israeli-Palestinians and Palestinians from the
PNA. Through three different settings (working at PRIME
on developing a school textbook with two narratives;
with refugees; at a University setting with a mixed
students group; conducting interviews in Haifa) he describes
the hardships of peace building 'under fire', but also
the potential achievements of such work.
Contents
Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction:
My Journey Through the Whirlwind; Chapter 1 Developing
a Methodology: Narratives and Stories; Chapter 2
Reconstructing Narratives Out of Silence: Beginning a
Dialogue Between Germans and Israelis; Chapter 3
PRIME: Peace-Building Efforts Under Fire; Chapter 4
Storytelling in the Israeli Jewish and Palestinian Context;
Chapter 5 The Diverse Voices of Haifa;
In Conclusion: Life's Rivers, Whirlwinds, and Whirlpools;
Bibliography, Index
2006
250 pages
ISBN 978-963-7326-70-7 cloth $45.00/ €39.95 / £35.00
|
